We Have Got to Stop Killing Our Children! You and I Must DO SOMETHING!

LOS ANGELES

BCK FILE—(Editor’s Note: One of the lessons that 50 years of journalism have taught me is: All stories do NOT have two sides. This is one of them. We have got to stop killing our innocent kids on playgrounds and in classrooms where safety is an absolute and wonderful rite of passage. Yes, an entitlement! You and I must do something … and, not knowing what to do is not an acceptable excuse for ignoring your responsibility. Do something. Do anything. Stand up. Speak out. Organize. Demand. Vote wiser. Hold electeds accountable. One more child’s death is on you and me. Beginning this moment, CityWatch pledges to use its 4.5 million click/week platform to give you a voice and to keep reminding all of us to DO SOMETHING … and to continue to REJECT THE BS! Beth Cone Kramer’s perspective, along with other related postings, is the beginning. DO SOMETHING. Otherwise, shame on you! Shame on us all!-Ken Draper, CityWatch Editor.)

On Valentine’s Day, students and 3 adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida were killed and 14 injured after a former student fired an AR-15 style rifle. This wasn’t the first school shooting in 2018 and we’re only halfway through February.

This marked the 17th school shooting in the United States in 2018 and we’re only halfway through February; 17 times, children who should feel safe in school were terrorized, parents said goodbye to their sons and daughters for the last time.

Think back to January 20, 1999.

The coverage of two teens on a killing rampage at Columbine High School was beyond imaginable for most of us who watched events unfold. What would propel teens to plan and carry out a massacre before turning the guns on themselves? How did they amass an arsenal of firearms? What consequences would this bring?

Almost 13 years after Columbine, an armed 20-year old shot 20 six- and seven-year olds, along with six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School before shooting himself.

Twenty years since Columbine and just over five years since Sandy Hook, school shootings continue to elicit a routine response. “It’s too soon to talk about this. Arm the teachers. Don’t politicize this. Thoughts and prayers.” Guns are pretty easy to come by and nothing seems to change.

A Gallup poll just after the Las Vegas shooting showed that 6 in 10 Americans favored tighter control covering the sales of firearms, yet every time there’s a shooting, there seems to be a disconnect. To better understand the gridlock over significant gun control legislation, we can look to the NRA.

NRA Through History

The National Rifle Foundation was not founded to promote gun ownership. Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate formed the association in 1871 in response to a “lack of marksmanship shown by their (Union) troops” during the Civil War. The first president of the NRA was Civil War Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The missions of the NRA included development of practice ranges, as well as gun safety and competency.

When and how did the NRA move away from its roots to a powerful lobbying group, funding political campaigns to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars?

The shift to lobbying happened following the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which created a federal licensing system for gun dealers, placing restrictions on certain categories and classes of firearms. By the mid-seventies, the NRA had established its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) and in the bicentennial year, the group had established its political action committee (PAC), the Political Victory Fund, in time for the 1976 elections.

By 1977, the NRA was heavily focused on forming coalitions with conservative Republicans with a goal of weakening the GCA, lobbying Congress to pass the Firearm Owners Protection Act and reducing the powers of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). 

NRA & 2016 Elections

A large part of the lobbying efforts of the NRA and specifically, its PACs is through campaign contributions.

During the 2016 presidential race, the NRA targeted $11,438,118 to support Donald J. Trump and another $19,756,346 to oppose Hillary Clinton. 

The NRA by no means limits its payouts to presidential politics. The top recipient of gun lobby money in the 2016 Senate elections was Speaker Paul Ryan. 

According to the Center for Responsive Politics and the New York Times, the politicians with the top career-long contributions from the NRA are as follows: 

Top 5 Senators 

John McCain (R, AZ) – $7.74 million

Richard Burr (R, NC) – $6.99 million

Roy Blunt (R, MO) – $4.55 million

Thom Tillis (R, NC) – $4.42 million

Cory Gardner (R, CO) – $3.88 million

Top 45 US Representatives

French Hill (R, AR) – $1.09 million (in just 2 elections)

Ken Buck (R, CO) – $800,544

David Young (R, IA) – $707,662

Mike Simpson, (R, ID) – $385,731

Greg Gianforte (R, MT) – $344,630

What Next?

The response from students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has been inspiring and significant. Student Emma Gonzalez is becoming a leader in this movement just days after her classmates were killed. 

The high school senior who was at the school during the shooting spoke at a Ft. Lauderdale rally on Saturday.

“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call B.S.," Gonzalez said at the rally on Saturday. "They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call B.S.... They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call B.S."

Her classmates have been making appearances on news programs and in social media. On Saturday evening, friends of the Parkland victims were among 300 demonstrators at the NRA headquarters near Fairfax, Virginia.

On March 14 and April 20 (the anniversary of Columbine), students and teachers around the country will hold a national school walkout organized by the Women’s March and on March 24, activists will gather in the Washington, DC for a March for Our Lives rally to get Congress to demand Congress to take action.

We’ll be following the movement for meaningful gun control reform and keep you posted on how we can all help.

(Beth Cone Kramer is a professional writer living in the Los Angeles area. She covers Resistance Watch and other major issues for CityWatch.)

-cw